Then & NowWill the flower of Hong Kong’s youth grow old under other skies?

Throughout its urban history, Hong Kong has hosted a diverse range of transnational residents, and their numbers have continued to grow. The trans­national is not, on the face of it, the stereo­typical expatriate. Rather, trans­nationals are those whose citizenship and travel docu­ments (which, as certain countries, such as China, increasingly make clear, are not always one and the same) and actual place of resi­dence and cultural identity differ markedly.

A century ago, Asia’s transnationals were, for the most part, ethnic Chinese (and, to a lesser extent, Indians) living in colonial Southeast Asia who had acquired British nationality, either by birth in British terri­tories such as Hong Kong, the Straits Settlements or Burma, or by registration as a British subject. Various early consular memoirs from places where Britain enjoyed extraterritorial treaty rights, such as China, Japan and Siam (modern Thailand), vividly describe instances in which these rootless people became the bane of the diplomat’s existence. Otherwise invisible within the wider commu­nity, these “British” nationals often materialised only when they had a request or a pressing personal problem the consul was somehow expected to resolve within the scope of such powers as he possessed.

As local society continues to evolve in ways the younger gene­ration find themselves unable to influence – much less control – it is inevitable that transnational “evaporation” from Hong Kong will accelerate. Unlike emigration, which shows up in immi­gration statistics in destination countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada, trans­national exits from Hong Kong tend to go unrecorded, as most already have a foreign passport. When local circumstances no longer suit them, they simply pack up and go “home” without any need to announce the fact officially.

Or do they? Technology now makes it possible – for those whose jobs permit it – to take a “Hotel California” approach to their Hong Kong lives and, to paraphrase The Eagles’ classic, “they check out, but they never leave”. Increasingly, the work of marketing professionals, business consul­tants and even doctors can be carried out remotely, and intercontinental cyber-commutes are ever more commonplace; at least one well-known newspaper com­mentator now files his daily column from the comfort, convenience and – let’s call it what it is, in these unsettled times – ultimate safe haven of faraway Toronto.

For the generation who came of age after 1997, today’s Hong Kong is a very different place from the one their parents were prepared to accept. As various protest movements have demonstrated in recent years, these young people are no longer content to be (at best) misruled by the sorry shower of proxies, puppets and stooges allegedly in charge of their city since the handover. This gener­ation – and here’s the kicker – regard “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Co as simply not radical enough to effect any meaningful change.